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Sunday, 27 May 2018

Did you not pick Vegas in your Stanley Cup bracket and are starting to feel a little foolish? Well, you’re not alone. Is your knowledge of the professional crokinole circuit vastly superior to that of the NHL? Well, join the club.

Join the club of people willing to put their ego on the line that is, by filling out a roster for the 2018 WCC Fantasy Pool.

Last year, Nathan Walsh became Fantasy Pool champion, joining the esteemed ranks alongside Roy Campbell and Clare Kuepfer as previous winners. Will one of them become the first two-time champion? Will there be new champion? Will it be you? You will get to play a part in deciding if that is the case.

The rules are simple (and the same as ever):

1. Pick the best 8 player team consisting of:

2 players from Group A

2 players from Group B

2 players from Group C

and 2 players from Group D.

2. The higher up your players finish, the more points your team earns.

3. Whoever has the team with the most points will win the coveted title of Crokinole Fantasy Champion, and bragging rights until their title is challenged next year.

The separation into 4 different groups is designed to spread out the talent, so a the winning team will require a strong showing from many different players who outperform their expectations.

This year, the groups were divided based on 2018 NCA Tournament results.

Group A - Any player with a victory on the 2017/2018 NCA Tour.

Group B - Any player who finished in the Top 4 of a 2017/2018 NCA tournament.

Group C - Any player who finished in the Top 8 of a 2017/2018 NCA doubles event, or Top 12 of an NCA singles event.

Group D - Any player not listed in Groups A, B or C. As a guide, a list of notable players have been provided.

Group A

Group B

Group C

Group D

Justin Slater

Nathan Jongsma

Ray Kappes

Randy Harris

Ray Beierling

Jason Beierling

Kevin Bechtel

Rueben Jong

Nathan Walsh

Tony Snyder

Lloyd Wiseman

Ezra Jantzi

Jon Conrad

Dave Meijer

Steve Wiseman

Dale Henry

Clare Kuepfer

Justin Martin

Dave Brown

Ab Leitch

Connor Reinman

Jonathan Phillips

Matt Brown

Greg Pinel

Robert Bonnett

Jeremy Tracey

Dwayne Campbell

Cathy Kuepfer

Nolan Tracey

Roger Vaillancourt

Barry Kiggins

Roy Campbell

Neil Cook

Kevin Brooks

Fred Slater

Tom Johnston

Lawson Lea

Brian Simpson

Rex Johnston

Rob C Mader

Andrew Hutchinson

Howard Martin

Merv Wice

Eric Miltenburg

Wilfred Smith

Michael Meleg

Robert Weeks

Wayne Scott

Peter Tarle

Len Chard

Christina Campbell

Beverly Vaillancourt

Derek McKie

Peter Carter

Ron Reesor

This is where a little inside information can make the difference. If you know of a real ringer coming in, or you want to take a chance, put then in your lineup.

Points will be awarded as follows:

1st - 100

2nd - 90

3rd - 85

4th - 80

5th-8th - 70

9th-12th - 65

13th-16th - 60

17th-20th - 50

21st-25th - 45

26th-30th - 40

31st-35th - 35

36th-40th - 30

41st-45th - 25

46th-50th - 20

51st-60th - 15

61st-70th - 10

>71st - 5

To solve the issue of not knowing who is attending the event, there will be printouts provided at the tournament to set your Fantasy team at the last minute. Entries will be accepted online, and in person, until 1:30pm EST on June 2nd, 2018.

That being said, feel free to comment below on your strategy and current picks to get a discussion rolling.

It’s his tournament, unquestionably, and Justin Slater proved it again with a dominating performance as he won his record setting 8th Ontario Singles title, and in doing so, captured his 4th NCA Tour Championship.

A field of 40 made their way to the St. Jacobs Mennonite church, which made up most, but not all, of the most likely contenders to win the World Championship in a month’s time.

With 4 groups in action, only 10 spots were available in the A group for the afternoon. 7 players made the advancement relatively easily, led by Justin Slater with a huge 68 out of 72 points, Jeremy Tracey, Andrew Hutchinson and Fred Slater all at 54 points, Connor Reinman (53), Ray Beierling (52) and Brian Simpson (50). Rex Johnston scored 49 points to qualify with a one point margin, as did Nathan Walsh who made the morning high 96 20s. The final qualifying spot was earned by Jason Beierling, who scored 48 points and 76 20s, which was only 4 20s ahead of Nolan Tracey, 5 20s ahead of Robert Bonnett, and one point ahead of Jon Conrad.

In the afternoon, Bill Harris and Howard Martin rose to the top of Pool D with 51 and 46 points. Peter Carter and Janet Diebel grabbed the final two semifinal spots at 39 and 38 points, just beating out Brian Henry at 37 points. Bill Harris won his semifinal 10-2 over Janet Diebel, while Martin and Carter played a very tight matchup. Carter did lead 6-2 in the “first to 9” but Martin came back to advance to the finals 10-6. After winning that match, Howard Martin came in full of confidence, and despite losing the earlier head-to-head match 6-2 against Harris, Martin was dominant in a 11-3 victory.

In Pool C, Steve Lefaive made a late push with a solid 6-2 victory over Beverly Vaillancourt in the final game, but it only landed him 38 points, leaving him in 5th place. Vaillancourt (43 points) finished the preliminary round in 3rd place, behind Bob Jones (46) and Cathy Kuepfer (43, ahead on H2H 20s tiebreak), while Rich Vander Hoven finished 4th with 39 points. Cathy Kuepfer and Beverly Vaillancourt played a very close semifinal that was tied 5-5 before Vaillancourt surged ahead for a 10-6 victory, with both showing very good form ahead of another battle for the Women’s World Championship title. Bob Jones held his top seed with a strong win over Vander Hoven 9-3 in the other semifinal. And in the C Pool finals, Bob Jones capped off a terrific afternoon with a 12-2 victory over Vaillancourt for the title.

Jon Conrad looked quite good in the afternoon in Pool B, easily grabbing the top seed at 54 points and only surrendering one loss in 9 games (6-2 to Clare Kuepfer). He was followed into the playoffs by Nolan Tracey at 43 points, who also only lost one game (6-2 to Jon Conrad). Robert Bonnett and Roger Vaillancourt finished 3rd and 4th at 38 points, leaving behind Cor Vander Hoven and Eric Miltenburg who both had 35 points. Tracey and Vaillancourt had a bit of see-saw affair with Tracey leading 6-0, and Vaillancourt cutting it to 6-4, but Tracey did finish off the victory 10-6.

However it was a long wait before the finals could begin as Jon Conrad and Robert Bonnett played yet another classic. Of course it is difficult to live up to the hype of 2017 World Championship, where Bonnett led 5-1, 4-0, before Conrad mounted a big comeback, and Bonnett finally clinched the title 5-3 in game 3. But this semifinal went the distance as the match utilized the “First to 9, with Wimbledon rule in place at 8-8” which requires any match tied at 8-8 to only be finished after an even number of rounds has been played. Bonnett and Conrad were neck and neck, tied at 8-8, and Bonnett moved one point away from the victory as he went up 2-0 in the extra rounds. But Conrad responded and also had chances to win as he led 4-2 and 6-4 in the extra rounds. But it wasn’t until 16 rounds had been played that Conrad completed the match 8-8, 10-6 in extra rounds.

Perhaps with a big boost of confidence or relief after overcoming the marathon match, Conrad was decisive in the finals, defeating Nolan Tracey, who had sat for 30 minutes waiting to play the match, 12-0.

In Pool A, much was on the line for the NCA Tour. Ray Beierling could move from 4th to 2nd with a victory, or 3rd with a runner-up finish, and Justin Slater with a victory could surpass Nathan Walsh for the NCA title. Walsh would quickly find himself out of the playoff picture and not in control of his NCA fate as he finished 9th in pool A. Meanwhile, Justin Slater would finish 1st with 47 points and 122 20s (136 when adjusted to 10 games). Connor Reinman would make his 3rd NCA top 4 as he finished 2nd with 45 points, followed by Fred Slater at 40 points. Jason Beierling would nab the final playoff spot at 38 points, to edge out Ray Beierling at 37 points.

Jason Beierling had been the only one to beat Justin Slater all day with a 5-3 victory in the round robin, and he began the semifinal with a 6-0 lead. But when they switched sides, Slater turned up the heat and reeled off 5 straight rounds to win the match 10-6. The other semifinal was a bit more straight forward and Connor Reinman looked stronger throughout to win the match 10-2 over Fred Slater.

So the final was a rematch of the Ontario Doubles final in last October. Reinman was gunning for his first NCA singles title (and his 2nd overall after winning the aforementioned Doubles title), while Slater was going for his record-extending 21st NCA title, and record-breaking 8th Ontario Singles title and 4th NCA Tour title.

Slater led the match 3-1, and had an edge in round 3, but rather unusually struggled on a couple of takeouts. Reinman was able to convert and tie the match 3-3. But from then on Reinman could not match the 20 scoring of Slater, and in one of his most dominant performances of the season, Slater took the match 11-3 for the 2018 Ontario Singles title.

The win is Justin Slater’s 8th Ontario Singles title, which now surpasses the record of 7 won by the legendary Joe Fulop in the years of 1992, 1994-1995 and 1998-2001. Slater won his titles over the years of 2010-2018, with a one year interruption from Brian Cook in 2011, who defeated him in the semifinals that year.

And with that, the 10th National Crokinole Association Tour is complete. Connor Reinman finished an impressive 5th in his first full year on Tour, beating out Jeremy Tracey who was 6th in his first full year of action. Ray Beierling finished 4th on the Tour, for his 10th straight Top 5 Tour finish, and only the second time he has finished outside the NCA’s top 3.

Jon Conrad finished the year with 3 runner-up finishes and an Owen Sound title, which was enough to finish 3rd on the NCA Tour for his 5th Top 3 finish. Nathan Walsh ended the year on a sour note, unable to hold on the NCA Tour lead which he had held from the start, but with his 3 tournament victories, earned his best ever Tour finish in 2nd.

And Justin Slater won his 4th NCA Tour, surpassing the previous best of 3 NCA Tour titles held by Brian Cook. Impressively, he entered 2018 with only one avenue to win the Tour, and he succeeded in winning three consecutive tournaments in Hamilton, London and St. Jacobs.

While pockets of European interest in the game of crokinole have existed for a few years now, you could be forgiven if it appeared from afar as a passive hobby from a select few of the most enthusiastic board game lovers who stumbled upon the Canadian game of crokinole after hours searching through web forums such as boardgamegeek.com.

But in Budapest, an assortment of individuals proved that a deep interest in crokinole can be found not only in Hungary, but in many European nations.

A small social was held on the Friday evening by the tournament organizers (Zsolt Rimár, Daniel Létay and Dóra Salamon) before the first ever European Crokinole Championships. It allowed some keen competitors from Spain, Italy, Canada and the Netherlands to try out the local Hungarian boards, talk about the few Hungarian words they’ve learned so far, and remark about how crazy it was they had all traveled to a foreign country to partake in a crokinole tournament.

Speaking of the boards, they are all handmade by Zsolt Rimár. The boards are of quite similar quality to the boards you might have purchased from Willard Martin, both in features and in quality. Obviously the dimensions are the same, with the exception of a slightly shorter height of the outer rim. Comparing to an average Willard board, the pegs are of equal reboundnicity (that's totally a real word, you don't have to double check), and most importantly, the board surface has terrific consistency.

The two main differences with a Rimár board compared to a typical one found in North America, or possibly anywhere, are the wax finish on the board, and the discs.

The wax finish is satisfying to the touch, and to steal a quote from Al Fuhr, "you can just feel the smoothness." To give a more relatable description, the wax finish has enough shine to it to see you own reflection, or catch the glare from a ceiling light. This used to be a defining feature of some boards made in Canada as well, but perhaps suffered somewhat in highly humid summers to be a little sticky, and have seemingly become less common. With regard to the Rimár boards however, they seem to be well equipped for the warmer Hungarian climate and showed little indication of stickiness.

The second distinguishing feature is the discs. While nearly all board makers acquire discs from a factory, the Rimár discs are handmade. Zsolt will admit it is a cumbersome process, but it is impossible not to admire the dedication that goes into the craft.

Saturday

The two day competition began on Saturday with Juniors, Women’s, Doubles and the first section of the Team competition. The Women’s competition was won by Dóra Salamon, with second place going to Klára Soós and third to Zsófia Schönberger. A triplet of Hungarians also won the junior trophies with Móric Szeszler in third, József Herczeg in second and Domonkos Kollár taking the title. Watching the Juniors compete was quite interesting and exciting. Not only did each player appear to be enjoying the game, there was a great deal of thought and focus present in most games that shows a clear desire from many of them to improve their skills. Of great help in spreading interest in the game to the youth of Hungary is credited towards a number of crokinole competitors who are school teachers, who have on more than one occasion, brought the game of crokinole into the classroom.

Afterwards, the doubles competition began with 26 teams entered, and an 8-game round robin that would see each team fighting for a place in the top 8. The tournament schedule allowed for significant time in between games and chose to utilize live scoring throughout the tournament, which made it easy to see which teams were playing well, and which would be fighting for every point to make the playoffs. At the halfway point, a number of the top teams had established themselves, with the Hungarian teams of Zámbo/Zámbo and Kacskovics/Móczár leading the way at 27 points, while the 4-time Belgian national champions of Costermans/Vrints sat 8th with a one point edge on 9th.

The Belgians would improve their play in the afternoon however and qualify for the playoffs in 7th spot. They would also be joined by 5 Hungarian teams, the Spanish champions of Cobo/Andrade, the Hungarian/Canadian team of Soós/Walsh.

Rank

Team

Country

Points

20s

1

Berzlánovich/Berzlánovich

Hungary

57

117

2

Kacskovics/Móczár

Hungary

52

72

3

Létay/Létay

Hungary

50

104

4

Cobo/Andrade

Spain

50

98

5

Soós/Walsh

Hungary/Canada

50

93

6

Zámbó/Zámbó

Hungary

45

103

7

Costermans/Vrints

Belgium

43

108

8

Nagy/Rimár

Hungary

39

76

9

Megyesi/Schiller

Hungary

38

86

10

Da Fatti/Kiran

Italy/India

35

80

11

Pria/Pria

Italy

34

65

12

Rueda - Román

Spain

31

65

The playoffs split the 8 teams into 2 groups of 4, with each group playing a round robin to determine the semifinalists. In Group B, Zámbo/Zámbo and Costermans/Vrints won so handily in the first two games that their semifinal position were guaranteed before their final game. Meanwhile Group A was much tighter and in the final game Cobo/Andrade and Berzlánovich/Berzlánovich faced each other both sitting at 9 points, and Soós/Walsh played Nagy/Rimár at 8 and 6 points respectively. But under pressure to advance, there were definitive victories with the Berzlánovich’s winning 8-0 and Soós/Walsh winning 7-1.

That set the semifinal stage: Costermans/Vrints vs Soós/Walsh and Berzlánovich/Berzlánovich vs Zámbo/Zámbo.

There were some interesting story lines in both matches. The all-Hungarian matchup pitted two pairs of brothers against each other, and also featured the top 4 ranked Hungarian players (see link for current ranking: https://korongcsata.webnode.hu/verseny-ranglista/). The other semifinal saw Bert Costermans and Dennis Vrints, who had won all 4 competitive crokinole events they’d ever entered, looking to extend their unbeaten streak against a whole new host of competitors. Their opponents of Klára Soós (mother of Attila and Kristián Berzlánovich) and Nathan Walsh had only been partnered together 10 minutes before the doubles event began, and shared the unusual distinction of being the only doubles team that didn’t speak the same language. (Although Walsh quickly learned from Soós that huszas was the Hungarian word for 20.)

In the semifinals, Soós/Walsh began with the first 2 points, but the match quickly became one-way traffic with Costermans/Vrints earning definitive victories in each of the following rounds. They were able to grab the early lead and hold on comfortably in the last 5 rounds to win the first to 9 match by a score of 10-2.

In the other semifinal, the Berzlánovich’s looked stronger throughout the beginning and led 8-2 before the Zámbo’s mounted a bit of comeback making the match 8-4. But the Berzlánovich’s ended it in the next round to advance to the finals.

In the 3rd place game, Soós and Walsh fell to a similar fate as they scored the first 2 points, but then proceeded to lose the next 10 straight as the Zámbo’s looked dominant and comfortable as they even pushed to increase the lead they had in every round. The 10-2 victory gave them the bronze medal from the first ever European Championships.

A lot was on the line in the finals as Belgium and Hungary faced off, and you could tell the pressure was on as a few shocking mistakes were made early in the match. After 3 rounds, the match was 3-3 in the first to 11 battle. The Berzlánovich’s had been the top team all day, having the lead in the tournament at every stage, however, Costermans and Vrints had picked up momentum throughout the day, and in the final rounds, both in tactics and execution, they proved to be the better team. They won the final 4 rounds in a row and claimed the European Doubles title with an 11-3 victory.

The first day of the competition had stretched on quite long as the doubles play had been interrupted to play the first half of the team competition, which was to be completed on Sunday. However, that didn’t stop most of the foreign players from enjoying a dinner and a few beverages in the warm Budapest evening.

Sunday - Singles

The Singles event had a 12-game random draw preliminary round with 49 players looking to make the top 16. Attila Berzlánovich was the class of the field as he easily took the top spot with 81 points and 128 20s. Following behind him were Gáspár Létay, Bert Costermans, and the reigning Hungarian singles champion, István Kádár.

There was quite the crowd for the final playoff spots as only 5 points separated 12th through 23rd, and only 7 20s separated 16th from 20th. The most crushing misses were that of Móric Szeszler, the top junior player on the day, and Nathan Walsh, who only missed the final playoff spot by 1 20.

Rank

Player

Country

Points

20s

12

Kristóf Zámbó

Hungary

61

94

13

Dennis Vrints

Belgium

61

41

14

Zsolt Rimár

Hungary

59

100

15

Krisztián Berzlánovich

Hungary

58

123

16

Dóra Salamon

Hungary

58

101

T17

Móric Szeszler

Hungary

58

100

T17

Nathan Walsh

Canada

58

100

19

András Kacskovics

Hungary

58

95

20

Daniele Da Fatti

Italy

58

94

21

Alfonso Román

Spain

57

89

22

Stefano Pria

Italy

57

80

23

Asbjørn Parmer

Norway

56

73

Comparisons between points and 20s can be intriguing, and the most shocking line was that Dennis Vrints score of 61 points, but only 41 20s. The man says his strength is not in scoring 20s, and thus chooses to shoot away from the 20 hole (aka Conrad) even without the lead or hammer advantage. In fact he “Conrads" so often he might even have a better claim on the naming rights of the shot.

The Top 16 were split into 2 groups of 8, with a full round robin to determine the semifinalists. In Group A, Attila Berzlánovich kept up his top form, scoring 39 points to easily finish first, while Dániel Létay scrapped out a narrow 2nd place spot with 32 points, just ahead of Miklós Papp and István Kádár at 31 and 30 points. In Group B, Gáspár Létay was astonishing in 20 scoring, making 88 20s (equivalent to 125 in 10 games) and finished 1st at 39 points. With the help of live scoring it was also evident the 2nd spot would come down to last game’s head-to-head match between Bert Costermans and Krisztián Berzlánovich. Costermans won the game 6-2, which was enough for the 2nd semifinal spot from Group B.

The semifinal pairings pitted father against son as Dániel Létay played Gáspár Létay, and saw a rematch of the doubles final on the previous day as Bert Costermans played Attila Berzlánovich. For yet another match, Gáspár Létay was incredible on the 20s and was able to claim the match for a spot in the finals after an enjoyable match. However, the other seminal match was marred by a bit of confusion and controversy. With both players under the impression the match was first to 7 points, Costermans initially led 8-4 and both players acknowledged the completion of the game, before being called back to the board to finish what was a first to 9 points semifinal. Berzlánovich would win the three rounds once they returned to advance to the finals 10-8.

Costermans however would rebound very well in the bronze medal match to defeat Dániel Létay by a score of 10-6.

The championship match of Attila Berzlánovich and Gáspár Létay was well anticipated as both players had shown great consistency in 20s shooting and shot-making ability. A number of spectators had arrived or stuck around for the match and were quite enthusiastic throughout and quick to acknowledge some good shots. Unfortunately for Létay, the great form on Open 20s he had shown throughout the day didn’t maintain itself, and Berzlánovich, a very aggressive player, was relentless in his pursuit and won the match 11-3 to win the first ever European title.

Team Competition

The final event of the weekend was the finale of the team competition. But unfortunately with the day’s events running long, a few teams had to bow out before the final games were completed. The format of the event was a series of nation-to-nation matches. Teams of 3 played 2 rounds of singles against each player of another nation, with each match having a total of 36 points at stake.

Thankfully there was not a strict requirement on citizenship for each team, so that everyone had the chance to compete, as the solo Canadian joined the Dutch pair of Jane and Joert to form "Canderlands", while the two Belgians were joined by Norwegian national champ, Asbjørn Parmer, to form "Belway". The other teams in competition included Spain, Italy, Romania, and the Hungarian teams of Korongcsata, Savaria, Anduril and Kanizsa.

By the end of the round robin team Hungary-Kanizsa, including Móric Szeszler and the Zámbo brothers had the top spot with 134 points, while the Spanish team finished 2nd with 125, just edging out Hungary-Savaria, the family team of Berzlánovich/Berzlánovich/Soós at 123 points, for the other spot in the final.

The final was closely contested and ended in a score of 18-18, but by virtue of 20s, the Spanish team of Jose Luis Ramirez Pérez de Andrade, Victor César Cobo and Alfonso Javier Romacho Román took home the European team title.

Thoughts from the air plane

That's either Greenland, or Canada in May. Hard to tell.

If I could speak personally for a moment, it was quite shocking to see first hand that there are many others playing this game. In Canada, and in the northern American states, the game of crokinole has been a piece of the rural household. Much of the popularity with the game of crokinole today stems from its place in the cherished memories of its competitors. Much of the interest in the game in North America comes from nostalgia.

In Europe there is none of that. The game is less than decade old in the Eastern hemisphere, and yet there are a significant number of people who have become dedicated crokinole players, who enjoy the game as much as any of us. They enjoy playing, watching and talking about the game, and a lot of them aspire to travel to the small town of Tavistock so they can compete in the World Championship.

For myself, it was at times a little uncomfortable to be treated with such celebrity status, but it was endearing and exciting. Four years ago I did a radio interview on NPR to talk about the blogs and videos I make about the game of crokinole. When the questions turned to, “What has come of this internet presence that crokinole now has?” I couldn’t say much. At the time, almost every tournament and club had declining attendance, and I questioned if competitive crokinole could survive for another four years.

But in that somewhat gloomy interview, I did mention there was a group of Hungarians who had taken up the game. It’s terrific now to see the results of the work they’ve done to build the game in their country and their continent, and it certainly feels like there will be more meetings (and huszas) in the future.

European Links

If you want to follow the game of crokinole in Europe, I’ve assembled a list of links for the various nations playing the game. (Hopefully with more to be added in the future).

About Me

CrokinoleCentre was created to capture the competitive crokinole scene. It is hoped that Crokinole Centre will help stimulate interest in the competitive side of crokinole, and bring the game to the next level. If you have a crokinole story, club, or tournament to share, let CrokinoleCentre know.